Listen to Nickelback on Batanga

Nickelback, who take their name from the nickel in change that bandmember Mike Kroeger had to frequently give customers back from their coffees at his job at Starbucks, started out as a cover band. But they eventually got bored or singing other people's songs and started making their own music. So the Canadian post-grunge rock band wrote their own songs and borrowed money to travel to Vancouver to record them in a friend's studio.

The band (who consist of Mike on bass, Chad Kroegeron lead vocals and guitar, Ryan Peake on guitar and backing vocals, and Daniel Adair on Drums and Backing Vocals) relocated to the city in 1996 and released the EP "Hersher" and full-length album, "Curb", independently and toured around the country playing their own music.

The group's singer used the promotional knowledge he learned during his two years selling magazine advertising, and asked all of his friends to request the band's debut single on radio stations until enough people heard it and started to request it themselves.

In 1998, they ditched their current management and decided to go it alone – with each band member taking on a role like handling bookings and distribution.

At the start of the millennium, the band released another album, called "The State", independently. The band's hard work and $30,000 they invested on the release paid off. With them eventually drawing such as buzz with the album's tracks that they performed live at over 200 shows, that they began performing in front of millions of people with top bands like Creed, 3 Doors Down and Fuel and were snapped up by record label EMI in their native Canada and Roadrunner/Island Def Jam in the US. The album went on to sell 500,000 copies and launched two top ten hits.

The band's early success was no doubt boosted by that fact that under Canadian law, a certain percentage of the music played on the country's radio stations must be by Canadian artists.

The band's next album, "Silver Side Up", was released on September 11^th, 2001. The album spawned 2002's most-played single, the massive "How You Remind Me", which rocketed them to stardom.

Since this success, the band's commercial success hasn't waned; their fifth and sixth albums ("The Long Road" and "All the Right Reasons") both topped the Canadian charts, and reached number 6 and 1 in the US respectively.

The group's recognizable songs have appeared on many movie soundtracks, including "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle", "Daredevil", and, most famously, "Spider-Man", which featured the single "Hero".

But the band's success has also brought them many critics. Grunge fans have criticised them for selling out for ditching their raw sound for radio and chart-friendly tracks. At a Portuguese heavy metal music festival, they were even booed off the stage for not fitting in with the harder sound of other acts playing at the festival. Their performance was greeted by a hail of bottles and rocks being thrown at the stage.